Great Expectations
by Once.Evil.Regal
Summary: Olivia thinks she is recovering from her traumatic experience, but when her life takes a drastic turn she feels like she can no longer be the strong woman everyone expects. Sequel to Coming Back to Bite.
1. Chapter 1

Chapter 1

**Again, this one's probably gonna start out slow, but I've got lots of excitement planned for the end. I'm also working on another fanfic at the moment, so updates might be a little slow for a while.**

"You wanna get something to eat?" Elliot asked as he and Olivia left the precinct. They were finished their shift and they both had the next day off.

"Sure. Pizza?"

"Sounds good. Who's buying?"

"Do you really need to ask?" Olivia smiled.

"You know, we're not going on dates here, it's perfectly acceptable for you to pay."

Olivia shrugged. "I could, but I'd rather not."

They both smiled and headed down the street together. The sun was just starting to go down when they turned the corner and Olivia suddenly stopped. Elliot tried to ask her what was wrong, but she quickly shushed him. They both stopped to listen and suddenly Elliot heard it to: a little girl crying. They both rushed towards the sound and found the girl in a nearby alley, curled in the shadows. They could barely see her, but she was clearly covered in blood.

"Sweetie, are you hurt?" Olivia asked gently. Elliot stayed back, letting Olivia approach the girl alone, keeping a close eye on both of them.

The little girl flinched away from Olivia touch with a tiny cry and Olivia gently stroked her hair. "It's okay, sweetheart, I'm a police officer, I want to help you."

The girl looked up and her eyes widened. "Olivia!" She flung her arms around Olivia, who barely had time to register the girl's face.

"Mia." She wrapped her arms around the little girl and glanced back at Elliot. She slowly lifted Mia into her arms and stood up. "Come on, Elliot and I are going to take care of you, okay?"

Mia nodded and clung to Olivia like a lifeline. Elliot had already called a bus and they waited together for a little more than 5 minutes. They wanted to talk to each other but they didn't want to say anything infront of Mia. They suspected the blood wasn't Mia's because there was so much of it and it was everywhere. Olivia was vaguely aware of the liquid seeping through her shirt but she only cared because it meant the blood was fresh, which meant whoever was injured – or more likely dead – was nearby.

When the paramedics came Mia wouldn't let go of Olivia, so she sat down in the ambulance and convinced Mia to at least let go of her neck so the paramedics could take a better look at her. It took some time, but eventually they concluded that none of the blood was Mia's and that, physically at least, she was fine. They gave the detectives a ride back to the police station and Mia fell asleep in Olivia's arms.

"Reminds me of Tommy," Elliot said quietly as they climbed the steps of the station. Olivia nodded, remembering the little boy who had become extremely attached to Elliot after a traumatic experience.

"Do you think she'll let go long enough for us both to change?"

"I doubt it." Elliot smiled.

"My keys are in my pocket, can you get me a t-shirt and some jeans? I'll see if I can get Mia some fresh clothes." Elliot nodded and took Olivia's keys for her coat pocket. He headed to her apartment and searched through her drawers for a plain t-shirt and jeans. It felt strange to be going through her clothes so he tried hard not to think about it.

When he got back to the station he found Olivia in the crib, stretched out on a cot with Mia still asleep in her arms. She had found the girl clothes, but she had started crying from sorrow and exhaustion when Olivia had woken her up. "Got your clothes," Elliot whispered, setting the shirt and pants down on the cot next to Olivia.

"Thanks. Now help me get up," she whispered, looking down at Mia. Elliot smiled and helped Olivia slip out of Mia's grasp. The little girl was too exhausted to wake up. They covered her with a light blanket. Olivia wished they could get her out of those bloody clothes, but she would take care of it in the morning.

"She'll panic if you're not here when she wakes up," Elliot said.

"I don't plan on going anywhere." Olivia turned her back to Elliot and stripped off her bloody top, putting on the black t-shirt Elliot had brought for her. Elliot quickly turned away when she grabbed her jeans. "I'm finished," she said when she had put on her fresh jeans.

"You could have warned me," Elliot said, turning to face her again.

"It's not like I was flashing you, and I figured you'd have sense enough to turn around. Do we have any idea where all this blood is from?" Olivia led Elliot over to the door so they were out of Mia's earshot.

"Cops are scouting the area."

"Check with Social Services, they should have her address, she's a foster kid." Elliot nodded and left. Olivia lifted one of the cots and set it right next to Mia's, then stretched out on it. It was too early for her to really feel tired, but it wasn't long before she fell asleep.


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2

"Liv." Elliot's voice was barely a whisper but Olivia was startled awake.

"What's up?" She asked groggily, rubbing her eyes and yawning.

"Found the crime scene, her foster parents were both killed. Father was shot once in the head, mom was raped and beaten. We have to talk to Mia, blood on her shirt is a match to her foster mom's."

"I'll talk to her when she wakes up," Olivia said, sitting up. She looked at her watch and saw that it was 2 o'clock in the morning. "I can't leave her, are you alright working the crime scene with Munch and Fin?"

Elliot nodded. "No problem. Get some sleep, looks like we've got a long day ahead of us."

"So much for our day off." They both smiled and Elliot left. Olivia stretched out on the cot again and fell asleep.

"Olivia? Olivia!" Olivia was awake instantly and she wrapped her arms around Mia, who was screaming and crying. It took half an hour to calm her down. When she was finally calm Olivia convinced her to put on the new clothes.

"Mia, can you tell me about what happened last night?" Olivia asked, her voice soft and soothing.

Mia shook her head vigorously. "No, no, no!" she screamed.

"Okay, okay, shhhh, It's okay, you don't have to talk about right now," Olivia said quickly, hugging Mia again to calm her down. She glanced at her watch and saw that it was 6 o'clock in the morning. "Mia, do you think you can wait here for 5 minutes while I go talk to my partner?"

Again Mia shook her head and started to panic and again Olivia assured her that she didn't have to do anything she didn't want to. Instead Mia climbed onto Olivia's back and Olivia carried her out of the crib, marvelling at how tiny Mia was for her age. The other detectives looked curiously at Olivia when she entered the squadroom but she didn't care.

"Hi, Mia," Elliot said, smiling when he saw Mia and Olivia. The little girl just hid her face behind Olivia's head and her own arm.

"Has anyone called Huang?" Olivia asked Elliot.

"Yeah, he's on his way. CSU's got a pile of evidence to sift through, we need…" He wasn't sure how much to say infront of Mia. Olivia nodded, knowing what Elliot meant.

"Do you have a deck of cards?" She asked.

"Uh, I can probably find some."

"Let me know when Huang gets here." Elliot nodded and Olivia took Mia back to the crib.

"Are we going to play cards?" Mia asked when she was sitting on the cot again.

"I thought you might like to," Olivia said, sitting down next to her.

Mia bowed her head and nodded slowly. It made Olivia's heart ache to see her so sad. Mia was so incredibly smart and funny and eager to prove herself, it was such a shame that she had to be bounced around in foster care. Olivia just hoped she could find the person who had killed Mia's foster parents.

"Hey, found you some cards," Elliot said, walking into the room and handing the deck to Olivia. She thanked him and her left.

"What do you wanna play?" Olivia asked Mia, shuffling the cards. Mia just shrugged, not looking up at Olivia. "You'll have to help me, I can't remember all the rules for rummy."

Olivia dealt the cards and Mia slowly arranged them in her tiny hand. At first she was very quiet, reminding Olivia which sequences she had to get. After a few rounds she began to cheer up a little, slowly forgetting some of the horror she had witnessed. By the time Huang arrived they were on round nine and Mia was laughing and joking.

"I thought you needed me?" He said when he saw Mia and Olivia.

"I do. Can you wait until we finish this game?" Olivia asked, looking at him apologetically.

Huang nodded and stood by the door, watching them play.

"I can still catch up to you," Olivia said as she dealt out their next hand.

"No way, I'm up 250 points!"

"You're only up because you caught me with those wild cards," Olivia teased.

"You're just a sore loser. Admit it, I rock." They both laughed. Mia looked up at Huang as Olivia drew her card and decided what she wanted to discard. "Who are you?"

"My name is George Huang. I'm a friend of Olivia's," he said.

"Are you here to talk to me?"

"Yes, if that's alright with you."

"Are you a psychiatrist?"

Huang was a little surprised, but he didn't show it. "Yes, I am. I work mainly for the FBI but sometimes I help Olivia with delicate cases."

"And you consider me a delicate case?"

"Do you understand what I'm here to talk to you about?" Huang was curious to see if she would open up so readily.

"I saw what happened to my foster parents." Olivia was shocked that she had actually admitted to it.

"Can you tell us what you saw?" Olivia asked softly.

"I'd rather not," she said, looking down at her cards.

"That's okay, we don't have to talk about it right now. Let's finish the game. I've almost got my run of ten," Olivia said, smiling.

Mia smiled at her, then drew her next card. They continued to play for just over half an hour, until Mia finally laid down her last hand and beat Olivia by 5 points. "I'll get you next time," she said. Mia smiled and shook her head, shuffling the cards.


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3

"Do I have to talk to you now?" She asked Huang.

"If you want we can all talk together," he said, sitting down on a cot next to them.

Mia moved to sit beside Olivia, avoiding Huang's gaze, and Olivia put her arm around Mia's shoulder. "Can you tell us about your foster parents?" Olivia asked.

Mia shrugged, still not looking up at either of them. "I was only with them for a month. They were nice, I guess. They don't have any kids; I was their first foster kid. They said they wanted to adopt me, but…I didn't want them to. Should I have told them I didn't want to stay with them?" She looked up at Olivia and then Huang, tears in her eyes.

"Why didn't you want to stay with them?" Huang asked.

"They treated me like a baby. They always talked to me like I was stupid; I hated it. But I didn't want to tell them that because they were nice to me, and I really wanted a home."

"Mia, what kind of grades do you get in school?" Huang asked. He knew Mia wasn't ready to talk about what had happened, and he had an idea to take her mind off of the situation.

Mia looked up at him, a little confused by the sudden topic change, then said, "When I do my work I usually get perfect, but sometimes I don't do my work."

"Why don't you do your work?"

Mia seemed to shrink under Huang's gaze as if she were in trouble. "It's boring, I want to do other things instead."

"Mia, have you ever had an I.Q. test?"

Mia shook her head. "What's that?"

"It's a test that sort of measures how intelligent you are. Would you be interested in taking a test like that? It's sort of a fun test and it doesn't really matter what you score, but it might be interesting to see the results."

Mia looked up at Olivia, not really sure what to do, so Olivia smiled and said, "Come on. It'll be fun."

Mia smiled and slid off the cot. She took Olivia's hand and they both followed Huang out of the room. They rode with him to his office. "I'm going to leave you with Huang while you do your test, but I _promise_ I will be back when you're finished, okay?" Mia looked uncomfortable, but she slowly nodded.

SVUSVUSVUSVUSVUSVUSVUSVU

"Where's Mia?" Elliot asked when Olivia sat down at her desk.

"With Huang. She's taking an I.Q. test."

"Why?"

Olivia shrugged. "Huang thought it would take her mind off things, I suppose. And I think he really wants to see the results. So where are we on the foster parents?"

"We got a hit off DNA from the mom's rape. I think we have to put Mia in protective custody."

"Why?" Olivia was shocked and a little worried.

"It's Greg Douglas." Greg had managed to escape in the chaos after Christy's death and police hadn't been able to find him since. Olivia had only taken comfort in the fact that Greg was never the brains behind the operation and was probably only interested in getting away, not going after Olivia again. But this made no sense.

"Why go after Mia?"

"Maybe she saw his face but never told us. Or maybe he _thinks_ she saw his face and he panicked."

"He said he gets off on watching. Is there a chance he was working with someone else?"

"If he is we can't find any evidence of it. Did Mia tell you anything?"

"She's not ready to talk about it. Maybe she'll open up to Huang a little more while she's taking the test. She knows what we both want from her, she's not gonna tell us until she feels ready."

"I'm going to interview the neighbours, you wanna come?"

"I can't, I promised Mia I'd pick her up when she finished the test."

"Olivia." Olivia turned to see who had called her and froze when she saw him.

"Matt, what are you doing here?" She stood up as he walked towards her.

"I heard about Mia."

"How? We haven't released any names."

"The address was in the paper, I recognized it. Is Mia okay?" He was really worried about her.

"Yeah, she's fine, she's with our psychiatrist right now."

"You couldn't stay with her? She likes you."

"I was with her all night. She's not ready to talk about what she saw so Huang's giving an I.Q. test. We're hoping she'll open up to him a little once she spends more time with him."

"And you're curious about the results."

She smiled, "A little. But getting her to open up really is the main reason."

"What did she see?"

"I can't discuss an open case, you know that."

Matt sighed. "Can I see her?"

"Later. Let her spend some time with Huang first. I'll call you."

Matt glanced around at the other detectives. Olivia glanced at Elliot, and then shook her head. Matt shrugged and left without another word. "What was that about?" Elliot asked, watching him go.

"Nothing," she said, sitting down at her desk again. "I thought you were going to interview the neighbours?"

Elliot sighed and grabbed his coat from the back of his chair. "Let me know if Mia says anything."


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter 4

**As I'm reading your reviews it seems a lot of you don't remember the characters from Coming Back to Bite. Remember, this is a **_**sequel**_**, so a lot of these characters aren't explained in the story because I already described them and explained their story in Coming Back to Bite. But for those of you who didn't pay close enough attention, here's a quick reminder: Mia is a little girl that was kidnapped a raped by a serial rapist, she helped solve the case. She's a foster kid and Matt knew her parents. Matt is an old friend of Olivia's from high school that came back into her life during her investigation of the serial rapist. Travis is another friend from high school, he was the original suspect, he started drinking after Olivia broke their engagement. She left because Travis's brother Curtis killed himself and she felt responsible. Christy was the mastermind behind it; she hated Olivia for 'killing' Curtis, even though she was really the one responsible. She kidnapped Olivia and was killed when the other detectives rescued Olivia. Hope that clears things up. If you need any more details, I recommend re-reading Coming Back to Bite. **

"She has an I.Q. of about 135."

"That would explain why she's bored in school," Olivia said. They were standing just outside of Huang's office while Mia sat finishing some crosswords Huang had given her.

"She's starting to open up a little more, but it's hard for her. She's been bounced around a lot, she doesn't fit in well with other children, and she's often either ignored or treated like a baby by her foster parents. She needs to be in a higher grade in school, but being transferred so often doesn't offer her teachers enough time to get a solid understanding of her situation."

"How do I get her to talk about what she saw?" Olivia asked. She didn't want to dwell on how sad it was to know Mia's intelligence was going to waste in foster care.

"She's not going to talk until she's really ready. All you can do is be there when she's ready. Is there anyone else she might be close to that can take care of her for a while, maybe her social worker?"

"I'll talk to Matt, he was friends with her parents and he visits her from time to time." Huang nodded and Olivia opened the door to his office.

"Ready to go?" She asked Mia.

Mia smiled and jumped down from her chair. "Where are we going?" She asked, taking Olivia's hand.

"We're going back to the station for now. Matt came by earlier, he wants to see you."

Mia's face lit up. "I haven't seen him since I first moved in with Brian and Jennifer!"

"Well I'm gonna call him when we get back to the station and you can stay with him while I do my job. Is that alright?"

"I thought you needed me to solve the case," she said quietly.

"Well, it would be a lot easier if you could help us, but we still need to gather evidence and talk to certain people. Mia…" Olivia stopped and crouched down infront of Mia. "Is there a reason you don't want to tell me what happened? You know it's going to be very hard for the other detectives and I if you don't tell us what happened. And I know it's uncomfortable for you to talk about, but you don't deny you saw anything, most kids deny seeing anything when they're upset. Is there something else going on? You can tell me."

"No," Mia said, shaking her head rapidly. She was starting to panic.

"Okay, okay, I believe you, I just had to ask. It's okay, we don't have to talk about it here." Mia slowly calmed down and they headed back to the precinct together.

"Can I have some ice cream? Jennifer never let me have ice cream."

"Sure. What flavour?"

"Chocolate chip mint. What's your favourite?" She asked as they headed into the ice cream shop.

"Cookie dough." She ordered them both cones and they were barely halfway through their treats when they reached the precinct.

"Olivia, getting in touch with your inner child?" Munch said when he saw Olivia licking the side of her cone because it was dripping.

Mia giggled and pointed at the cone. "It's going to drip on your hand."

Olivia just laughed and used her napkin to wipe off some of the dripping ice cream. "Let me know when Matt gets here," she said to Elliot before leading Mia into one of the small rooms they often used for talking to children.

SVUSVUSVUSVUSVUSVU

"Are you working the case now?" Elliot asked when he got back from interviewing the neighbours and saw Olivia sitting at her desk.

"Yeah, Matt's taking care of Mia. Her social worker's here, too. Get anything from he neighbours?"

"Nobody heard anything."

"How do people not hear gunshots? I can never understand that."

"You know what people are like, they don't want to get involved. Their subconscious tells them in was nothing. It's the screaming I don't understand. Jennifer had to be screaming, Warner said she was probably conscious for most of the attack, and she has the guys skin under her nails, she had to be screaming. How do people ignore that?" He shook his head.

"Are we letting Greg's picture out to the press?" Olivia asked.

"Cragen's at a press conference right now. You know, I'm starting to wonder if there's any point even putting Mia through the trauma of telling us what happened. We know Greg attacked her and we can't find him, what else can she give us?"

"Something's off with her. I think there's more to the story than what we know about. Normally kids just ignore the subject completely, pretend it didn't happen, and then start to panic when they sense the conversation even steering in the direction. But Mia's different. She's brought up the subject more than once without any prompting from us, but she won't actually talk about it. It's weird; I've never seen that before. Something is just…off." She was talking more to herself than Elliot, getting lost in thought as she spoke.

"Cragen wants us on another case until Greg turns up or until Mia gives us something to go on. We've already done everything we could think of to find him the first time he split, there's no point going through it all again."

"I figured. Does this mean we just gave up our day off?"

"I'm actually heading home, I just came here to let you know what was going on and see if you got anything from Mia. If she's taken care of you might as well go home, you look like hell."

"Thanks," she said sarcastically, rolling her eyes. "I'll stay here for a while, we still have to figure out where Mia's gonna go, she should be under some kind of supervision until we figure out how much danger she's really in."

"Suit yourself. Talk to you later."


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter 5

Olivia walked into the viewing where Mia's social worker was standing, watching Matt entertain Mia. "Olivia Benson," she introduced herself.

"Allison Greene." They shook hands.

"He really cares about her," Olivia observed, watching Matt trying to teach Mia to juggle.

"He wants to adopt her," Allison said.

Olivia was shocked into silence for a minute, and then said, "Does he have a good chance?"

"Hard to say. He isn't married and he doesn't have any family in the city. He has a girlfriend, but he says she probably won't stick around when she finds out about Mia. If she does decide to stay, he might have a good shot, but I don't see it happening." She frowned.

"What makes you think she'll split?" Olivia asked.

"Come on detective, if your boyfriend sprang a kid on you like this would you stick around?"

"Yes," Olivia said without a moment's hesitation.

"Well, we can't all be saints, I suppose. Apparently his girlfriend has real commitment issues."

"So if she leaves he won't be able to adopt her?"

"Probably not. And it's a shame; he would make a great father for Mia. I'm sure he'd be great, but we have certain rules we have to follow. Sometimes I really hate this system."

"Yeah. So do I."

"I guess you see a lot of this in your line of work, huh?" Allison asked.

"It's a really tragic situation. Most children I see need to be taken away from their parents, but then they get bounced around from home to home and never get the support and counselling they need, so they can't recover. Some of them get lost in the system altogether. Cases like that are what make me want to leave this unit."

"So why don't you?"

"It's not just the kids that come through here, it's every victim. I can't abandon them. I like to pretend it's a noble sense of justice but in reality I just don't want anyone else to have to go through it day after day. I'm as damaged as I'm gonna get, might as well keep going."

"But you still care."

"Yeah, I do. The day I stop caring or start liking this job is the day I leave." Olivia didn't really know why she was talking about this to a complete stranger, but it was somehow therapeutic to talk to someone that she didn't know.

"I think the world would be a much better place if everyone cared about these kids as much as you do. If only Matt's girlfriend were like you, we wouldn't be having this discussion."

Olivia laughed. Allison gave her a confused look. "Sorry, it's just…I've never really been girlfriend material. I'm getting better, but hearing someone say they wish other girlfriends were like me…it's funny." Allison just nodded, not really sure what to say. "So he's sure she won't stay?"

"He says she likes kids, but that's hardly enough. A lot of peopled like kids but they don't adopt them. If that were enough we wouldn't have so many children being bounced around in foster care."

"I guess we'll just have to wait and hope for the best. You haven't said anything to Mia about it, have you?"

"No, we don't want to tell her until we know for sure what we're up against. If the girlfriend's willing to get on board, then we'll tell her. If not, we might never have to."

"That's a lot of expectation on this girlfriend."

"He's not going to tell her what's at risk, there's no use guilting her into this. But you're right, it's still a lot of weight on her shoulders." Allison sighed. "Look at them. How can the system not let them be together?"

Olivia looked through the glass. Matt had a hold of Mia and was tickling her while she laughed and squealed. Both Allison and Olivia smiled. "Yeah, they really belong together."

"Well, I have to go, other kids need my help a lot more than Mia. It was nice talking to you, Olivia." She left the room with a hopeless expression on her face. Olivia sighed deeply and looked at Matt and Mia again.

"They look happy," Elliot said, entering the room and shutting the door behind him.

"He wants to adopt her."

"That's great! Will they let him?"

"Apparently he doesn't have much of a shot unless his girlfriend gets on board, and he's pretty sure she won't."

Elliot sighed and shook his head. "The system sucks."

Olivia nodded. "Yeah, it does."

SVUSVUSVUSVUSVUSVUSVU

Matt opened the door, an expression of pleasant surprise on his face. "Olivia, I thought you'd be buried in work today."

"I talked to Mia's social worker, she told me about your girlfriend."

He opened his mouth, couldn't think of anything to say, and then shut it again. He paused for a few more seconds before asking, "What did she say?"

"She said you don't have much chance of adopting Mia unless your girlfriend gets on board. And apparently you don't think she will. I was just wondering if you'd talked to her yet."

"No. I just called her but she's not home and she turned her phone off."

"So you really think she's gonna split when you tell her?"

"Yeah. I don't want her to, obviously, but I really care about Mia. I care about my girlfriend, too, and I really hate ending it like this, but…" he shrugged.

"What do you think she'll say?"

Matt shrugged. "She'll probably say she's not ready, she doesn't want to make that kind of commitment to me, I don't really know. What do you think she'll say."

"I think you'll be surprised."

"Oh yeah, why's that?"

Olivia shrugged. "She probably really cares about you, and maybe she'll really care about Mia, too. I think she'd love nothing more than to start a family with you, you're a great guy."

"How long do you figure she'll keep up the charade?"


	6. Chapter 6

Chapter 6

Olivia laughed and shoved Matt playfully. "You should really talk to her before you make up your mind."

"Well if she'd just turn her damn phone on maybe I would," he said, smiling as he wrapped his arms around Olivia.

"You should really talk to her in person anyway," she said, kissing him softly.

"So you really think she'll say yes?"

"Definitely." The both laughed and kissed each other again.

"I really was going to tell you in person, I didn't think Allison would spill it to you like that," he said, pulling her into the apartment and closing the door.

"Fine, just abandon the game," Olivia said, smiling. "She thought she was just talking to some random detective. Besides, it gave me time to decide what I was going to say."

"And you decided to keep up the random detective act?"

"I figured you'd appreciate it. You always tell me to lighten up, joke around more, I thought you'd be proud of me."

"I'm very proud of you. And you're sure you wanna do this?"

"Of course. Matt, do you know I've actually taken vacation time to be with you? Do you know how huge that is? The only time I ever take vacation time is when Cragen forces me to. And Mia…if you hadn't decided to adopt her first I might have suggested it. She's an amazing kid."

"I didn't think you'd want to adopt."

"Why?"

"I dunno, I guess I figured you'd rather have your own."

"I'd actually rather adopt," she said, her voice distant. She'd never thought much about it before, but she always knew it was true.

"Really? Why?"

"Maybe I'm just that much of a workaholic," she said with a shrug.

"When I said you should joke more often I didn't mean you should use it as a way to avoid talking to me," he said, smiling as he sat down on the couch behind Olivia and pulled her down onto his lap.

"Having to deal with the kids who slip through the cracks all the time, it just makes more sense to give them a home than bring my own child into the world. Mia doesn't have to be my flesh and blood for me to love her."

"Can I ask you a question?"

"You've never needed my permission before."

"What happened to your mom?"

Olivia's breath caught in her throat. She had never told Matt about her mother's rape. At first she had hidden it from him because she didn't want him to know, but they had been together so long she actually forgot he didn't know. He knew everything else about her, something she wasn't used to, it only made sense that he should know about her 'heritage'. "She was raped."

"When?" He asked, shocked.

"Before I was born," she said slowly.

"How long be…oh." He leaned back against the couch, looking up at the ceiling. Olivia stood up, feeling awkward, but Matt grabbed her hips and pulled her back down. "Hey, relax. It doesn't matter."

"Yes, it does."

"Okay, it does. But it doesn't change anything. I don't know why you thought it would."

Olivia shrugged. "I don't know."

"Why didn't you ever tell me, back in high school we told each other everything."

"I didn't know in high school. I didn't find out until after I left Travis. My mom was drunk and she told me I would never be able to stay with someone, not with my genes. It didn't take much prying to get her to admit to the rape. She threw it in my face, actually."

"You could have talked to me about it."

"It's in the past, do we really need to go over what I could have done?"

Matt smiled and shook his head. "You're right, it's pointless. Do you have to go back to work anytime soon?"

"I'll take some time off once we close this case. I need to know what Mia saw, and whether or not she's in danger. You understand, right?"

"Of course. I've forgiven you for much less noble reasons. Will you at least take the night off? The other detectives can handle the case while you're away. And this is the last night we have together before Mia moves in."

"They're letting her stay here with you?"

"As a temporary foster placement. Allison got it approved; it was pretty easy. Nothing official but it's better than her going to some strangers house for a week."

"I'm sure the others can handle one night without me," she said, kissing him passionately.

"Good." There was a knock on the door and Matt cursed softly. Olivia laughed and shifted out of his lap and onto the couch. Matt stood up and answered the door.

Travis let himself into the apartment as soon as the door opened. He had cut his hair and trimmed his beard, making him look like a new person compared to the man who had been arrested almost a year ago. He'd been sober since shortly after Christy's death and his sobriety added years to his appearance. It also re-ignited the charm and wit that the alcohol and depression had extinguished from his personality. "Am I interrupting?"

"Yes," Olivia said.

"Fantastic." Travis sat down next to Olivia on the couch and kissed her on the cheek. He winked at Matt, but he just rolled his eyes and smiled. Any other man would be pushing his luck with such an action, but Travis was a cocky SOB that they both loved. It wasn't perfect, but they were best friends again and Olivia could almost believe the past two decades had never happened. It was different, not having Christy around to complete their group, but they all tried very hard not to think about that.

"What do you want, Trav?" Matt asked, his arms crossed over his chest.

"Natasha wants to meet the other woman in my life," he said with a smile, putting an arm around Olivia. She leaned her head against his chest.

Natasha was Travis's girlfriend. They had been dating for almost six months and, according to Matt, she was perfect for him. Olivia had never met her because they're schedules always conflicted. "I might not have any time off for a while, I have a case I need to close."

"You have to take time off eventually, Liv."

"Yes, when this case is over," she said.

"I'll hold you to that. So…what are you kids up to?" He asked in a singsong voice.

Olivia slugged him hard in the arm. He laughed and stood up, heading for the door. "Alright, alright, I get the picture. Have fun!"


	7. Chapter 7

Chapter 7

Olivia sat up suddenly with a gasp, breathing as if she'd just been chasing a perp. She was so tangled in the sheets that she could barely move her legs and she was soaked in cold sweat. She shivered despite the warm air in the room and slowly untangled herself from the sheets, careful not to wake Matt, who was sleeping on his front with one side hanging over the edge of the bed. Olivia slipped on her nightgown and went into the bathroom, closing the door softly. She turned on the sink taps and splashed cold water on her face, trying to banish the terrifying images from her head.

It had been 10 months since her abduction. She had recovered quickly; the bullet hadn't hit any organs. And of course she had gone right back to work. But despite spilling her guts to Matt, Huang and Elliot (to a certain extent; there was only so much she was willing to share with Elliot no matter how close they were), she was still having horrible nightmares. She couldn't get the sickening images of body parts out of her head, or cleanse the memory of the putrid smell and the slimy feeling of the 'water' against her skin. She could still hear the gun, feel the cold water and hard ground hit her knees as she fell, feel the bullet rip through her. And she could still see Christy, falling to the ground lifelessly, crimson blooming from the wounds in her head and abdomen.

At first Olivia had been afraid to sleep. The sights, sounds and smells were so vivid that she ran to the bathroom to be sick. Gradually the nausea subsided, and she would wake up in tears, her breath coming in shallow gasps as she fought to control her panic attack. Over the last 2 months the nightmares had become nothing more than blurred images that Olivia barely remembered when she awoke. But tonight was different. The nightmare had changed. She had been standing in a deep well, submerged up to her neck in black, putrid liquid. The severed head slowly swirled around her, smiling, laughing at her. Christy, Matt and Travis had all been standing above her, their guns pointed at her head. They were yelling at her, blaming her for killing Curtis, for destroying their lives. And Mia…the thought broke Olivia's heart. The little girl was there, sitting on Matt's shoulders, looking down in disgust. Olivia could still hear her words: 'You're nothing but a joke. You could never be a real mother.' And then the guns had all fired.

A chill ran down Olivia's spine and she shut off the water, sinking to the floor. She sat on the floor for a minute, replaying the nightmare over and over in her head, then slowly she broke down and began to sob.

"Liv, what's wrong?" Olivia jumped up quickly, attempting to wipe away her tears, but it was no use. Matt wrapped his arms around her.

"I'm fine," she said, but even as she spoke her voice cracked and she began to sob again.

"Come on, let's go back to bed," Matt said soothingly. Olivia shook her head, but she let Matt lead her back to the bed anyway. He slid under the covers and she curled up next to him, still crying buy no longer sobbing. He wrapped his arms around her and sang softly into her ear until she fell asleep.


	8. Chapter 8

Chapter 8

"You look like hell, did you get any sleep?" Elliot asked when Olivia entered the squadroom.

"You know, it wouldn't kill you to say 'hi' once in a while. I couldn't sleep. You don't look so well rested yourself."

Elliot shrugged. "Eli kept me up all night. He has an ear infection."

"Anything new come in on the case?" Olivia asked.

"Nothing. Unless we find Greg or Mia opens up we've got nothing to go on."

"Maybe not. Warner wants to see you two," Cragen said. Elliot and Olivia headed out to see Warner.

"I found GSR on Jennifer Banton's hand," Warner told them.

"She fired a gun?"

"Take a look at this." Warner led them to Jennifer's body, which was covered with a white sheet. She reached under the sheet and showed the detectives Jennifer's hand. "Look at the wound between her thumb and forefinger."

"Looks like a slide bite."

"Maybe the perp forced her to shoot Brian, spare him the pain of being tortured. We've seen it before."

"That's possible. But Brian Banton died at least four hours before Jennifer, but her attack was quick. Most of her injuries were inflicted post-mortem, she died from blunt force trauma to the head."

"Seems like a strange coincidence. She kills her husband and four hours later she's attacked and killed? If she did kill him she obviously had a gun. And why would Greg walk into an apartment, see a dead body, and then attack the dead man's wife? It doesn't add up."

"And if Greg killed Brian, why wait around? And why make it look like Jennifer did it? He had to know he left his DNA all over the place."

"Greg's hardly a genius," Olivia said, "But you're right, it still doesn't add up."

"You gotta get Mia to talk," Elliot said to Olivia. She sighed. They thanked Warner and left.

SVUSVUSVUSVUSVUSVU

Mia had been placed in an emergency foster home until Matt could get his apartment ready and Allison could get everything sorted out. Olivia went to the house to see her. She was really nervous as she walked up to the front door. Matt hadn't yet told Mia about adopting her, and she didn't know that Matt and Olivia were dating. Travis and Natasha were the only people who knew. Elliot didn't even know that Olivia had patched things up with Matt and Travis. She wasn't sure if she should tell Mia about being adopted or not, but she was spared having to make a decision. "Liv, I figured you'd make your way over here eventually. Come on in."

"Matt, what are you doing here?"

"I came to see Mia. I was gonna tell her about living with me…us." He smiled and Olivia returned his smile, but she felt a chill run through her. Her nightmare was still haunting her. She had told Matt about the nightmare but not about Mia's role in it. He didn't need to know.

Olivia followed Matt into the house, trying not to trip over toys or even the small children that darted infront of her. Mia was sitting on the top of a bunk bed reading a book in a room that she shared with four other children. They were all out playing, however, so she was alone. She smiled when she saw Matt and Olivia. "Hi, sweetheart," Olivia said.

"Olivia!" Mia smiled and put down her book. "Why are you here?" She was looking from Olivia to Matt.

"We're here to talk to you," Matt said.

Mia grabbed her stuffed rabbit and held it hugged it tightly, looking sad and nervous. "You still don't want to talk about it, do you?" Olivia asked. Mia shook her head.

"Well that's not all we're here for. We want to talk to you about something else," Matt said, lifting Mia off the top bunk and setting her on the bottom bunk so he could sit next to her. Olivia sat down on the floor, putting her arm on the bed and resting her head on her hand so she could look up at Mia and Matt. "Did I ever tell you I have a girlfriend?"

Mia was so surprised she started to giggle. "No," she said, smiling.

"Well, I do. And I talked to her a lot, and we both talked to Allison." Mia's expression changed when she heard her social worker's name. It was as if she didn't dare hope that he was actually about to say what she really wanted him to say. "She said that if my girlfriend and I live together and agree to work together with Allison, we can adopt you."

Mia was silent for a while, shocked, not really sure what to say. Then, very slowly, she said, "And your girlfriend agreed?"

"Yup," Olivia said, putting a gentle hand on Mia's knee.

Mia smiled at Olivia, her eyes brimming with tears. She leaned forward and hugged Olivia, and Olivia's eyes filled with tears and her heart ached with affection for the little girl as they wrapped their arms around each other.


	9. Chapter 9

Chapter 9

"Mia, I know you're excited, and we really want to take you home, but I really need to talk to you," Olivia said, keeping her voice soft and soothing.

"I'll be back soon," Matt said and left them alone in the room.

"I don't want to talk about it," Mia said, hugging her rabbit again.

"I know, sweetheart, just listen for a minute. We know Brian was killed hours before Jennifer. And she had what we call a slide bite; it's a wound between the thumb and forefinger that people sometimes get when they don't know how to properly fire a gun. Do you understand?"

"You think Jennifer killed Brian," Mia said.

"Yeah, we do. And we know Greg killed Jennifer, but we can't figure out why, and we can't really be sure Jennifer killed Brian. We need you to tell us what you saw. You're a smart girl, Mia, I think you know how important it is for us to find Greg."

"Is he the same Greg that kidnapped you?"

"How do you know about that?" Olivia was shocked, and she felt a chill travel down her spine as images from her nightmare returned.

"I read it in the newspaper. Don't tell Matt, he says I'm too young to read about things like that."

Olivia nodded slowly, then replied, "Yes, it's the same man, but he was only doing what someone else told him to do. That's why we think there's a lot more to this story than what we already know." This was the strangest interview she'd ever had with a victim. She was no longer using and of the techniques she had learned for talking to children; they were all lost on Mia. The girl was young, but she knew exactly what Olivia wanted and there was no way around it. And she needed desperately to be treated like the mature young girl that she really was rather that the baby everyone saw her as.

"Jennifer was cheating on Brian," Mia said, avoiding Olivia's gaze.

"With who?" Olivia had a suspicion, but she almost couldn't believe it.

"Greg. He came over a lot when Brian wasn't around. I wasn't supposed to be listening but I was. She said she wanted to kill him but people say things like that all the time, I thought she was joking." She looked at Olivia with tears rolling down her cheeks.

"It wasn't your fault, Mia, not at all," Olivia assured her. She sat down on the bed and wrapped her arms around Mia.

"They were arguing. Jennifer wanted to get rid of me and Brian didn't want to. She had a gun, and he was really scared, and she…" Mia started to cry and Olivia stroked her hair soothingly.

"It wasn't your fault," Olivia repeated. "It takes a lot of hatred to kill someone. If you weren't there Jennifer would have found some other reason to argue with him and he still would have died."

"She hated me so much…" she said, her voice no more than a whisper. "I should have asked Allison to find me a new house. But Brian really wanted me to stay. I…I just wanted someone to love me."

"I love you," Olivia said, kissing the top of Mia's head. They sat in silence for a while, Mia crying silently while Olivia held her.

"She didn't know what to do with Brian. She was really angry, she told me to go in my room. She called Greg; I think he was angry at her for actually killing Brian. She told him to stop being a baby and come over. It took a long time for him to come, she thought he ran away. When he came over I was in my room. I didn't see anything, but I heard them talking. They went into Jennifer's room and I couldn't hear anything for a while. Then I heard them in the kitchen arguing. Greg sounded funny. He was slurring his words and laughing at everything. At first all I could hear was laughing, then he started getting angry. At first I thought it was Greg, but the voice was different. Then I heard her screaming. I waited until I heard them leave, then I went out and…I slipped, and I…I fell." She shuddered at the memory and Olivia could sympathise. "I was so scared I just ran away."

"You're doing great, sweetheart. Just one more question; did you recognize the man's voice?"

"No," she said sadly.

"That's okay. We'll figure it out."

"I don't now if it was Greg or the other man, but one of them had a drink of water before he left. I heard him in the kitchen."

"That's great, Mia. Really great."

"Do you and Matt really want to adopt me?" She asked, looking up at Olivia finally.

"Yes, we really want to adopt you." The both smiled.

**Right now it's all happiness and rainbows, but hang on, that's gonna change really soon ;)**


	10. Chapter 10

Chapter 10

"Jennifer killed Brian, but it looks like Greg didn't kill Jennifer. There was definitely another man in the apartment and he's the one who got angry with Jennifer. We need to get CSU over there; one of them was stupid enough to have a glass of water before he left and I'm hoping it was our mystery man," Olivia filled everyone in on what Mia had said.

"Are we confident Mia's not in danger?" Cragen asked.

"Mystery man didn't know she was there. Sounds like Greg was drunk or high during the attack; I'd put my money on the drugs. He probably doesn't even remember what happened. And even if he does, I don't think we have to worry about Mia." The truth was Mia would be staying with her and Matt, so she already had protection. She was still worried, of course, but that would never go away.

"I'll get CSU back to the apartment," Cragen said.

"Good job, getting Mia to open up. So is Matt's girlfriend gonna stick with him to adopt Mia?" Elliot asked.

"Yeah. She's thrilled about it," Olivia said with a smile. She wasn't sure why she was still hiding her relationship with Matt, it just came naturally. It wasn't the right time to reveal the news to everyone. Besides, she had some big decisions to make.

Lately Olivia had considered leaving the unit. Nightmares still plagued her, contributing even more to her lack of sleep. She had almost not time for Matt and even less for Travis. It was a miracle she still had relationship at all, but Matt cared about her a lot and constantly made sacrifices to spend time with her. Mia, however, would be different. The little girl couldn't just change her sleeping habits at will to be with Olivia, she was only seven years old. Olivia considered lightening her case load, or even going on desk duty, but the cases would always get to her. She couldn't turn her back on victims that were right infront of her. She couldn't pause in the middle of an investigation because it was 6 o'clock, time to go home. Elliot had a family and Olivia didn't envy how difficult it was for him to find time for his children and his wife. She didn't think she could do what he did. But the one thing that always came back into her thoughts whenever she considered leaving; she couldn't leave. It was pure and simple, it hardly stood up against the stack of reasons why she should leave, but it continued to nag at her. She had tried to transfer before and it hadn't worked. She tried to tell herself it was because in computer crimes she had still been involved with SVU, and when she was in Oregon she just missed being a detective, but she didn't really believe that was it. She cared too much about the victims to abandon them. She tried to tell herself it was ridiculous, leaving the squad wasn't abandoning the victims, but she couldn't shake that feeling. In the end she was confused and frustrated.

"Olivia," Cragen waved his hand for Olivia to follow him into his office. Olivia glanced at Elliot with a 'what'd I do now?' look and then followed Cragen. She entered his office and closed the door behind her.

"What is it, captain?"

"When were you going to tell me about your conflict of interest?" Cragen asked. He was pissed.

"What conflict?" She asked, hoping it wasn't what she thought it was.

"Allison Cole contacted me, she wanted to know what kind of hours you work, whether or not you could cut back, things like that. You can imagine my surprise and delight when she told me your were adopting a child. Can you imagine my reaction when she told me your future daughter a witness in a murder case? And not only is she a witness, but you didn't agree to file the adoption papers until _after_ she became a witness. What the hell were you thinking?"

"Matt wanted to adopt her," Olivia said, not really sure what Cragen planned to do to her.

"So you had to beat him to it?" Cragen said.

Olivia looked confused for a second, then shook his head. "Matt and I have been dating for almost a year. He wanted to adopt her and I agreed to it. If I didn't he probably wouldn't be able to. And…I wanted to do it."

"Olivia…" Cragen sighed. "I'm happy for you. But you're already on thin ice with IAB, if they get hold of this they're going to jump on it. You're not supposed to get personally involved with victims or witnesses; Mia happens to fall under both categories. I want you off the case."

Thoughts are arguing entered Olivia's mind, but she decided it was a small sacrifice if it meant cooling Cragen's anger and avoiding IAB. She nodded and turned to leave, then remembered her promise to Matt and Travis.

"I want to take some vacation time. I was going to wait for the case to close, but since I'm not working the case anymore…"

"Take a week, we can handle things without out. Don't take Mia far, though, we might need her again. And Olivia…I really am happy for you." Olivia smiled and left the captain's office.

"What was that about?" Elliot asked.

"Cragen pulled me off the case," she said.

"What, why?" Elliot looked confused.

"Don't worry about it, I'm taking some vacation time anyway. See you in a week." She put on her coat and left without another word, leaving Elliot looking confused and a little stunned.


	11. Chapter 11

Chapter 11

Olivia and Matt decided to move into a house in Queens. Between the two of them they had more than enough money. It took some convincing on Olivia's part because she had always lived in the city, and it made her uneasy to think that she could run into Elliot or his family at any time (not that she admitted this to Matt), but she gave in because it was best for Mia. They still had a lot of paperwork to fill out, interviews and home visits from CAS, and Olivia's work hours would no doubt be under scrutiny, but Allison assured them they had a good chance of become Mia's parents if they just kept going. To celebrate buying their new house and adopting Mia they spent an entire week exploring the city, shopping, eating at fancy restaurants and gorgeous little cafes, and spending their evenings together. Olivia helped Mia build a huge fort in the living room while Matt cooked dinner – something Olivia wouldn't even bother to attempt. Everything was so perfect Olivia hardly dared to believe it. Which might have been a good thing, because their happiness didn't last long.

During Olivia's time off the squad made no progress on the murder case. CSU had found the glass the murderer had used, but his DNA wasn't in the system. Eventually they had no choice but to leave it as a cold case until they could find Greg. When Olivia came back she was not please with the news, but Mia seemed to be adjusting well to her new life and didn't seem to think about the case, so it didn't worry her much. What did worry her was whether or not Cragen had spilled her secrets to the squad, but when she sat down across from Elliot he made no mention of it, and neither did anyone else, so she assumed they didn't know.

Olivia didn't understand why she was keeping it a secret. She had a family, something she'd always wanted so badly, why wasn't she climbing up the stairs and shouting it out to everyone? Why couldn't she at the very least tell Elliot? She _had_ wanted to adopt Mia, right? Yes, she knew that was true. She loved Mia and Matt…so why did she feel compelled to hide them from everyone. It was one thing when they were just dating, she'd wanted to keep that separate from work because it was no one's business, and she didn't want to have to talk about it with anyone if the relationship ended. But this was completely different, she should want to tell everyone about this. So why didn't she? She hated not understanding her own motives, it was driving her crazy.

Later that day as the detectives were coming back from lunch and Olivia's cell phone went off. She was in the car with Elliot, just leaving the café. She fished the phone out of her pocket and answered it.

"Liv, it's me. I'm at the hospital with Mia." Matt sounded calm, but Olivia could hear the worry in his voice.

"What happened?" Olivia knew it must be serious if Matt had taken Mia to the hospital. He was a paediatrician, after all, and would know how to take care of Mia if it was a simple flu.

"Her leg hurt," he said.

Olivia was confused for a minute, so she said, her voice low, "I don't get it, you took her to the hospital because her leg was sore?"

"She was screaming in pain. They had to give her a sedative and she's on pain medication. She'll be out for a few hours, but you should be here when she wakes up."

"I'll be there as soon as I can," Olivia said.

"Alright. Love you."

Olivia considered for a moment just saying goodbye; Elliot didn't even know she even had a boyfriend. But she wouldn't do that to Matt – he was already annoyed that she hadn't told her co-workers about him – so she said, "Love you, too."

Elliot glanced at her as she put her phone back in her pocket, but he had to keep his eyes on the road. He was slightly shocked, though. "Who was that?"

"Since when do you ask me who I'm talking to?"

"Since you started ending your phone calls with 'love you, too'," he said.

"My boyfriend."

"You have a boyfriend?" He wasn't all that surprised that she had his it from him. He didn't want to seem too nosy by asking about him, so he asked, "How long have you been dating?"

"Almost eleven months."

"Wow, that's great!" He glanced at her again and smiled. "So who do you have to go see at the hospital?"

"You don't think you're getting a little too nosy?" Why couldn't she just tell him?!

Elliot shrugged. "Fine. You need a ride? I'll cover for you with Cragen."

Olivia sighed. She could go back to work for a couple hours, Mia would still be asleep, but in that time she might get too caught up in the case to leave, and she really should be with Matt. So she nodded and let him drive her to the hospital. He headed back to the station and she headed inside and almost immediately saw Matt sitting in the waiting room.

"They won't let you in the room?" Olivia asked, sitting down next to him.

"They will but I don't need to see her like that. I'll go in there in a couple hours so I'm with her when she wakes up."

"What happened?"

"I asked her if she wanted to play catch outside and she said her leg was bugging her. About an hour later she was in tears, completely hysterical, so I brought her over here and they gave her a sedative because the pain meds were gonna take about an hour to kick in completely."

"Do they know what's wrong with her?"

Matt looked at Olivia as if deciding whether or not her should tell her something, then shook his head and slouched in his chair again. Olivia decided not to press him for details and just rested her head on his shoulder in silence. "I think she had leukemia," Matt said suddenly. Olivia sat up and looked at him. He sighed. "When I younger, before I moved here, I went to my friend's birthday party and one of the girls that was invited started complaining about her leg hurting. It had happened to her a few times before but she just thought it was growing pains and ignored it. But that night she was in tears and they had to take her home. She wasn't at school the next day, or the day after that. Two weeks went by and I finally heard that she had leukemia."

"Matt, just because someone you knew had a sore leg and got leukemia doesn't mean Mia has it," Olivia said, but she was just kidding herself. Matt was a paediatrician, he would have more than just the memory of an old friend to make such a grave assumption.

"It's more than that. She has a lot of bruises on her. I thought it was from abuse, being bounced from family to family so often and always changing schools could have masked the abuse, but I'm starting to think it's more than that. And her being so tried lately, we've been taking her all over the city, it only makes sense that she'd be tired. But now, with everything coming together…" He sighed. He didn't want to worry Olivia but he needed to talk to someone about it and he wasn't ready to suggest it to the doctor until he heard the doctor's opinion first.

"I'm guessing those are all symptoms of leukemia," Olivia said, resting her head on Matt's shoulder again. Her heart ached and she desperately wanted Mia to be okay.

"I could be wrong, let's just hear what the doctor has to say."

"He's no more of an expert on this than you are," Olivia said.

"No, but he's a lot more experienced and he's seen a lot more than I have working in a busy ER like this."

"What are we going to do if you're right?"

"We're going to get her treatment. If you catch it early enough she's got a really good chance of making a full recovery."

Olivia didn't really want to ask, but she had to. "How are we going to afford her treatment?"

"We could move to Canada," Matt said with a smile. Olivia glared at him. "Not a good time to joke? Fair enough. We'll be fine, Liv."

"Matt…I can't just punch out at six every night, there might even been times when I'm working a kidnapping and I have to stay at work for days. This…" Olivia buried her face in her hands.

"I know your job is demanding. I never wanted you to get into this if you weren't ready. Allison never should have told you about me not being able to adopt Mia without you, I didn't want to guilt you into this."

"You think that's the only reason I'm doing this, don't you?" Olivia said, looking at Matt again, her eyes flaming.

Matt sighed and looked her straight in the eyes. He weighed his answer for a while, then said, "Yes, I do."

"Screw you," Olivia hissed and left the hospital.


	12. Chapter 12

Chapter 12

Olivia didn't go far; she couldn't leave Mia no matter what Matt said. And she still wanted to adopt Mia, even if Matt didn't trust her motives. But the more she thought about his words and all of her secrecy she couldn't help wondering if it would really be the best thing for her, or for Mia. By the time two hours had gone by her head was spinning and she just wanted to run away from everything; Matt, SVU, even Mia. Instead she took a deep breath and went back into the hospital, walking into Mia's room for the first time.

Mia was hooked up to an IV that was giving her the pain medication, but other than that she looked fine. She did have a bruise on her arm that Olivia had never noticed before, though, and it worried her. Matt was already slouched in a chair in the corner of the room and he sat up when Olivia entered the room. "Liv, I'm sorry…" Olivia held up her hand to silence him and took a seat on the other side of Mia's bed.

"Come on, Liv, we can't do this now."

"Do what, exactly?"

"Fight."

"We're not fighting, but we will be if you don't shut up."

"I didn't mean what I said."

"Yes, you did. I mean it, Matt, I'm not fighting with you here." They both fell into an awkward silence.

Mia opened her eyes and Olivia - who had been resting her head on Mia's bed, watching the little girl as she slept – sat up on the edge of her seat. "Hey, sweetheart. How're you feeling?"

"Fine," she said, looking down at the IV in her hand.

"That's medication to help with the pain. Does your leg hurt anymore?" Matt asked.

"No, I'm on pain medication." Matt and Olivia both smiled.

"When can I go home?"

"We have to talk to the doctor first but hopefully it won't be long," Matt said.

"When will the doctor come talk to you?"

"I'll go find him right now," Matt said and left the room.

"Did Matt tell you what he thinks is wrong with me?" Mia asked as soon as she was alone with Olivia.

Olivia looked curiously at Mia. "How do you know what Matt thinks?"

"I read his medical textbooks sometimes. I don't really understand much of it." She looked a little embarrassed to admit it and Olivia could almost laugh. "He marked a bunch of pages about leukemia, and I read about the symptoms and I have some of them. I saw him researching it, too. Well, he closed the website before I could see what he was doing, but I looked in the internet history."

Olivia was so stunned that Mia read Matt's textbooks and knew had to check internet history – even though Matt had set a password on his laptop that Mia wasn't supposed to know – that she wasn't sure what to say for a minute. She took a deep breath and chose her words carefully. "How long ago did you notice this?"

"I saw the textbooks yesterday. I assumed it was just something one of his patients might have, but this morning when my leg started hurting I…" She looked up at Olivia, not wanting to say anymore, but Olivia urged her on. "I asked him to buy me some Popsicles and while he was gone I looked on his laptop."

"And what do you think about what you read?"

"It makes sense," she said with a shrug.

"Well…let's just wait and see what the doctor says."

"Is chemotherapy really as bad as all the medical books say it is?" Mia didn't look or sound scared or upset, she just spoke as if she were asking a question of no consequence.

"Let's just take it one step at a time," Olivia said, trying to stop tears from welling up in her eyes. This wasn't fair. Not only did Mia not deserve it, but Olivia couldn't stop thinking that she wasn't ready to deal with it, and these selfish thoughts just made everything worse. 'Maybe I shouldn't have done this.'


	13. Chapter 13

Chapter 13

The doctor couldn't give Matt a definite diagnosis and said that Mia would need more tests. Matt shared his leukemia theory with the doctor, but he said it was too early to jump to such conclusions; they would need to do some tests. Olivia suggested taking some time off, but Matt said she should reserve her vacation time for after the diagnosis, when Mia would need her most. So Olivia returned to work, reluctant to leave Mia but happy for the distraction. They weren't working any cases involving children, for which she was extremely grateful. Ever since her relationship with Matt had grown more serious than any relationship she had ever had (except maybe her relationship with Travis), cases involving children had become increasingly difficult. She had thought a lot about having children when she realized how much she loved Matt, but seeing those cases always made her reconsider things. She thought that was the biggest reason she hadn't told anyone about Mia, but it still didn't make any sense.

"Wow, I don't believe it," Casey said, seeing Elliot and Olivia finishing up paperwork at their desks.

"What?" Elliot asked, looking up.

"You two might actually get out of here at decent hour," she said, glancing up at the clock.

"We should celebrate. Drinks after work, anyone?" Munch asked.

"I'm in. Kathy took the kids to see her mother for a few days so I'm off the hook."

"Sounds great. Coming, Liv?" Casey asked.

"Uh…no. I gotta get home," she said, rubbing the back of her neck. Most people took this as a sign that she was tired, and that's often all that it meant, but Elliot knew her well enough to know when she was lying or hiding something.

"Since when are you in a hurry to get home? I always thought you slept here," Fin joked. Elliot was the only person she had told about having a boyfriend and he obviously hadn't told anyone.

"Gotta get home to Mr. Right?" Elliot said with a smirk.

"Mr. Right?" Casey said, suddenly very curious.

Olivia just rolled her eyes and went back to her paperwork, ignoring everyone's curious stares. Everyone asked Elliot about the mystery man in Olivia's life but he confessed that he didn't even know the guy's name, and without Olivia's cooperation they were forced to drop the issue. When the detectives had finished their paperwork they all headed out for drinks. Elliot stayed behind to offer Olivia a ride and she reluctantly accepted, not wanting to call Matt, who had dropped her off in the morning.

When Elliot put on his signal light to turn onto Olivia's street, she sighed. "We're going to Queens."

Elliot glanced at her and flicked off the signal light. "That where Mystery Man lives?"

"Uh…yeah." Well, it was true, he did live there.

"'Uh, yeah'? What was that for?"

"I moved," she said, feeling all of her secrets suddenly rising to the surface. She wanted to blurt it all out to him.

Elliot was glad he was at a red light because his head whipped around so fast he probably would have caused a car crash. He quickly looked back at the road and drove through the light that had just changed. "You bought a house in _Queens_? With Mystery Man? How is it that I don't even know the guy's name? I get it, your personal life is your own business, but you bought a house and didn't tell me? I don't mean to sound like a third grader, but I thought we were friends?"

"I'm sorry, Elliot. I don't really know why I didn't tell you. It's just been a really…confusing time," she said, suddenly unsure whether or not she should mention Mia. She was worried they might actually crash.

"Do I get to at least know his name?"

Olivia knew as soon as she said Matt's name Elliot would know about Mia. She shrugged and waited until they were at another red light, then said, "Matthew."

"Matthew…wait a minute, _Matt_?! The guy you used to be best friends with? _You're _the girlfriend Mia's adoption depends on? So…is that why you bought a house? Shit, Liv, I knew you liked to keep things to yourself but…why didn't you tell anyone?"

"I've been trying to figure that out, but I really don't know. I think I just like the idea of having a life completely separate from work. It almost feels like I've been split into two different people."

"You and Matt are really happy?"

"Yeah, we are." He didn't need to know about Mia's health problems.

Elliot nodded. "Then I'm really happy for you." He squeezed her hand and took his eyes off the road for a split second to smile at her. She returned his smile.

When Elliot pulled into the driveway of Olivia's new house – amazed at how close it was to his own and suggesting they carpool more often – Matt was sitting on the porch with a beer bottle in his hand. Elliot turned the car off and got out, walking up to the house with Olivia.

"I guess the secret's out," Matt said, standing up to kiss Olivia and then shake Elliot's hand.

"It's Olivia's business, she'll tell the rest of the squad when she's ready," Elliot said and Olivia felt a swell of affection for her partner.

"I'm glad to hear it. You're not mad she didn't tell you?"

"No, just surprised. I'm really happy for you two. Hurt her and I'll kick your ass."

"I believe it," Matt said with a smile. Olivia rolled her eyes, but she enjoyed watching the two most important men in her life finally talk to each other.

"Olivia?" Mia's voice floated through the screen door, barely above a whisper. She said good night to Elliot and headed inside.

"She's gonna be such a great mom," Elliot commented when Olivia had closed the door.

"She already is," Matt said, smiling.


	14. Chapter 14

Chapter 14

"So why'd you two keep it secret for so long? I usually don't like to pry into Liv's personal life, don't even ask her about it, but this just seems weird. I never thought she'd hide something so important from me."

"I think she really respects you for that, letting her keep her personal life separate from work as much as possible. At least that's what she tells me. To be honest I really don't get it either. Not that I really mind, it doesn't change anything between us, but sometimes it makes me a little uneasy. I mean, if she can't even tell her closest friends how serious can she be about the relationship? But in every other way she seems really serious about us, and I know she really loves Mia, so I don't press the issue."

"She's always wanted kids, even tried to adopt a while back, but she had good reason for hiding that. This…I figured she'd want to tell everyone about this."

"What was her reason back then?" Matt asked. Olivia had never told him about trying to adopt before.

"They turned her down, said she wasn't 'prime parent material'." He scoffed. "No wonder social workers have such a hard time finding homes for kids. They take them away from the scum of the earth, and then subject every potential parent to standards that most bio parents don't even come close to living up to. I get that they want these children to be safe, but so many rejected parents would be a thousand times better than being bounced around in this shitty system."

"They just wanna cover their ass, they don't really care about the best interests of the child. At least the higher-ups don't. Social workers care but they have no power to make any real difference. If it weren't for Liv I probably wouldn't be able to adopt Mia because I don't have any real support system."

Elliot sighed. He didn't want to ask Matt, but he had to. "Liv isn't just doing this because it's best for Mia, is she? I mean, it's a good thing to look out for Mia but it has to be right for Liv or it's just gonna be a disaster."

"I tried to talk to Liv about it and she got really offended. She insists she wants to adopt Mia and I believe her. Even if something's a little off, she seems perfectly happy with Mia and I. But…" He sighed. "I'm still a little worried about her. Mia…she's sick. The test haven't come back yet so we don't really know definitively, but I really think she has leukemia. It's really putting Liv in a bad position. She can't leave Mia now, but I don't know if she can handle going through this right now. Everything's moving so fast, it would break my heart to see Olivia crack under the pressure. Sure, maybe she's ready to be a mother, but no mother is ever ready to see their child go through something like this, and that's without all this craziness going on around them."

"Wow…Does Liv know what you think about Mia?"

"Yeah. I had to tell her, she'd only get mad at me when she found out I was keeping it from her." He smiled. "She's a great detective and I'm a lousy liar; it wouldn't take her long to figure it out."

"What'd she say about it?"

"She was upset, I guess, but she didn't really say much of anything. After I told her is when she got pissed at me for suggesting she wasn't really ready for this, and we haven't talked about it again since."

Elliot glanced down at his watch and sighed. "I should get going, it's late and my youngest has a bad cold. I hope things work out for you guys."

Matt thanked Elliot and sat on the porch for a while after he was gone, finishing his beer slowly. Then he tossed the bottle in the recycling and went inside. Mia was already in bed and asleep; she had very little energy lately. Olivia was stretched out on the couch, staring at the t.v. Matt lifted her feet so he could sit down, then set them back down on his lap and started massaging her foot. They were both silent, but it was a comfortable silence. Olivia could sense Matt wanted to talk, and Matt could sense that Olivia didn't, so he let her have her way. He had decided to wait until Mia's diagnosis was confirmed before he had any kind of serious conversation with Olivia. There was no point getting angry at each other only to find out everything was fine – thought Matt was sure he was right.

The next day Matt and Olivia both had to work. Matt left very early in the morning, so Olivia dropped Mia off at a babysitter. She didn't want to leave Mia but she had no choice. She told the babysitter – the daughter of Matt's old family friend – to let Mia just rest for the day because she wasn't feeling well, and that she would be by later that day to pick her up. Mia didn't complain about being left with the sitter, but Olivia assured her several times that she would be home from work as soon as possible, and Matt wouldn't be working late. Even though Mia seemed perfectly content, Olivia still had an uneasy feeling in the pit of her stomach.

As soon as her shift was over Olivia was out the door. She was relieved they weren't working any really demanding cases that day, mostly just routine questioning and gathering evidence. They had another interview left to do, but Elliot told Liv not to worry about it and he went with Munch instead.

When Olivia got to the sitter's house she knocked on the door a few times, then stepped back. When no one came to the door she knocked again, much harder, and then again, much more frantically. When there was still no answer she pressed her face close to the lass next to the door and put her hand up for a better view, but the frosted glass made it impossible to see anything clearly. Finally she drew her gun – out of habit and maybe mild paranoia that came from years of chasing dangerous perps – and kicked the door with all of the strength in her powerful leg. The lock broke and the door swung inwards. Olivia stepped carefully inside, gun held at the ready. The first thing she saw was the babysitter, lying on the floor with a piece of paper taped to her chest, which – to Olivia's relief – rose and fell slowly and rhythmically. She moved on through the house, searching every room and every closet, but the house was empty. Nothing appeared disturbed. She went back to the babysitter, checking her pulse just to be sure. She called for a bus on her radio and then read the note that had been left. It said:

_I'm really tired of you hunting me. I can't go anywhere without worrying about you people. And now it turns out there was a witness to everything? There's no use just killing her, you've already heard he story by now. So if you want her to live, Detective Benson, come and get her._

There was an address written on the bottom that Olivia recognized as a hotel. When the paramedics arrived Olivia gave them a brief explanation of what had happened, then raced back to the station. There was a cop on her tail because she was speeding and ran two red lights without her siren on, which she didn't have because she was driving Matt's car, but when she pulled up to the precinct she flashed her badge and ran off without caring what the cop had to say. She didn't even bother with the elevator, opting instead to race up the stairs. She was out of breath when she reached the squadroom but she knew it would have taken longer at this time to get there by elevator.

"Liv, what's wrong?" Elliot asked when Olivia skidded to a halt, almost crashing into his desk. She thrust the note under his nose and he read it over quickly.

"He has…Mia," she said, leaning against his desk to catch her breath.

**The action's just starting to pick up. I hit a rut with this story,I was a little worried, but I'm back into it now and it's looking like upwards of 20 chapters or so. Hope you're enjyoing. Sorry for all those who thought this was gonna bereally action packed, it's mostly about Liv's personal life, but I figured since it's lacking (more like non-existant) on the show, you'd like to read about it instead. Anyway, click the button and let me know what you think!**


	15. Chapter 15

Chapter 15

The entire squad was off to the hotel in no time where they quickly evacuated everyone. Olivia had expected to find Greg there, but according the hotel clerk the man in that room didn't match Greg's description at all. Everyone got into place, completely surrounding the hotel, but the blinds in the room were closed, so they had no idea what was going on inside the room.

"I'm going in there, captain," Olivia told Cragen.

Cragen paused for a minute, his jaw clenched, then nodded. "Be careful."

He told everyone to let Olivia through. She was wearing a vest and she had a gun in her hand but she knew both were pointless. The room was on the second floor, so she headed up the stairs and knocked on the door.

"Who is it?" A voice called from inside.

"Detective Benson. Who are you?" Olivia called through the door.

"James. You got a gun?"

"You know I do," she said.

"Drop it or the kid's dead," he called. There was a faint squeal from inside and Olivia felt her heart drop. She set her gun down on the floor.

"I put the gun down. Let me in."

"You wearin' a vest like the rest of 'em?"

"Not anymore," she said, slipping off her vest even as he asked. There was no point having one, anyway. She would be sitting in a tiny hotel room only a few feet away from him without a gun, it would be easy for him to shoot her in the head or neck, or even a vital artery in her leg.

She heard the chain slide off the door and the lock click. She opened the door very slowly, keeping her hands in the man's sight as she nudged the door open with her foot and closed it with her elbow. The man sitting on the bed was definitely not Greg. He was much taller, with sharp, chiselled features and short, tidy hair and maybe a day's worth of stubble on his chin. He was holding a very tired and sick looking Mia in his left arm, pointing the gun in his right hand at Olivia. "Sit down," he said, indicating a chair against the wall.

Olivia inched over to the chair and sat down slowly. "I just want to talk," she said calmly.

"Yeah, right. If you had it your way those snipers out there would have a bullet in my jugular by now," he snarled.

"That's not true. We want everyone to come out of this alive, including you."

He scoffed. "I'm not gettin' outta here alive."

Olivia shook her head. "That's not true. Nobody's been hurt, you can still walk out of here with me and we can sort this all out."

"This little rat told you everything. It doesn't matter if I get outta here or not, your guys are just waiting to lock me up."

"She didn't tell us anything. She had her eyes closed, she didn't see anything."

"You fucking liar. You think I'm gonna fall for that bullshit?"

"There was someone else with you that night, we found DNA. He's wanted on other charges. If you give him up you can get a great deal."

"I can't do that, Olivia."

"Why not?"

"Greg's dead."

"You killed him." She didn't even both making it sound like a question.

"Jackass deserved to die. Still gonna offer me a deal?" He smirked.

"There must be a reason you brought me here."

"Maybe I just wanted you to watch the rat die."

"I don't believe that's the only reason." Of course she believed that, but she couldn't just give up. James just shrugged. "If that was the real reason you'd have killed her by now. Tell me what happened with Jennifer."

"She wanted my help getting rid of her husband. I told her I wouldn't, so she offered me more money. When I refused again she said she'd give me up to the feds for dealing. I told her I'd think about it, but she snapped before I got there. She said I didn't help her so she was gonna give me up, so I killed her. Greg's a sick son-of-a-bitch, though, did a real number on her. Whatever, didn't matter to me, he got what was comin' to him. Then I found out about the damn rat."

"How did you know Greg?"

"He was a mule for me. Too much of a coward to stand up to me. Suited my needs perfectly. Didn't help that he head an attempted murder of a cop on his head, but I was on the run anyway. Which brings me back to this interesting coincidence. The rat's your kid now; the very cop Greg tried to off."

"You've already told me more than Mia ever could, you don't need her anymore. You have a detective as a hostage now, you can let her go."

James smiled. "Nice try, detective. Once I leave this room that's it for me. They're either gonna kill me or they're gonna lock me up for life. Either way my life's over. You're right, though, I didn't bring you here to watch the rat die. I brought you here so you could go down with her."

"NOO!!" Elliot cried out. Cragen pulled him down behind the cruiser as the ground floor of the building behind them exploded and the whole thing crumbled.


	16. Chapter 16

Chapter 16

Olivia opened her eyes closely, coughing as clouds of dust filled her lungs. She was surrounded by rubble. There were tiny slivers of light filtering down from high above, but all she could see was rubble and dust packed so tightly around her she couldn't even sit up. She seemed to be in a tiny pocket, though, that left her free to move, so she tried to sit up a little and cried out in pain. Her entire right leg below the knee was trapped and roared with pain. Her other leg was free, but she couldn't move. She lifted her head and felt her heart stop.

Mia was lying just beyond her reach, pinned on her stomach with only her left arm and head visible. Her hair dark hair was covering her face but she appeared to be unconscious. "Mia!" Olivia called out, praying she was alive.

Mia let out a tiny groan and tilted her head to look at Olivia. Even in the dark she could see Mia's nose was bleeding and there was a fine trail of blood coming from a cut on her temple. "My head hurts."

"Can you move at all?" Olivia asked.

Mia paused for a minute, then nodded. "Sort of. Everything's stuck."

"Can you move your fingers and toes?"

"Yes."

That was a good sign. She probably didn't have any crush injuries but her head injury could mean a serious concussion and her nose bleed definitely wasn't a good sign. "Mia, does your nose hurt when you touch it?"

Mia squeezed the bride of her nose with her free hand. "No."

Olivia was worried now. Her nose couldn't be broken if it didn't hurt at all. She knew leukemia sometimes cause frequent bleeding, especially nose bleeds, and she was worried the bleeding wouldn't stop. "Are you tired?"

"Yes," Mia said sadly.

"Just keep talking to me, sweetheart, you have to stay away, okay?" Mia nodded and Olivia finally let herself look around. There were buried under layers of wood and bricks and she had no way of knowing how stable any of it was or how long it would take the police outside the hotel to find her.

"I'm really sleepy," Mia said, her words distorted slightly by her still bleeding nose.

"I know, but it won't be long before you can rest. Right now why don't you sing something?"

Mia sighed and then started singing. "Mama…just killed a man…"

Olivia couldn't help but smile at the irony as Mia sang Bohemian Rhapsody. She joined in where the song split into two parts and they ended the song feeling a little more upbeat. Mia quickly launched into Killer Queen and Olivia joined in, even though she couldn't remember all the words. Mia laughed when she messed up and taught her the right words. Even through all of their laughter, though, Olivia couldn't ignore the searing pain in her leg or the terror that gripped her heart when she looked at the blood flowing over Mia's lips. She had wiped it away several times, but it wasn't stopping. Olivia hoped it would stop soon.

"What other Queen songs do you know?" Olivia asked when they had finished Killer Queen. Mia didn't answer, though. "What's wrong?" Olivia asked.

"Your leg; it's bleeding." Olivia looked down to see the dark pool that was slowly growing around her leg. She new it hurt but she hadn't realized it was bleeding so much. Now as she lifted her head a wave of dizziness made her vision blur and she had to fight to keep her voice calm.

"It's alright, there's a lot of people looking for us. We'll be out of here soon. Come on, let's sing something else." Mia didn't seem fully convinced, but she started singing again anyway.

As they were finishing Another One Bites the Dust Olivia was starting to feel light-headed. Mia's nose had stopped bleeding, but she was having trouble staying awake. "I want to go to sleep," she said miserably.

"I know, Mia, but you probably have a concussion and it's really dangerous to sleep right…now," Olivia closed her eyes as her vision began to swim and her head began to spin.

"Olivia?" Mia tried to reach out for Olivia's hand but couldn't reach.

"I'm okay," she said.

"Olivia!" Her eyes snapped open when she heard Elliot's voice.

"Elliot! We're down here!" She shouted back.

"Liv! Are you hurt?"

"My leg is trapped, it's bleeding badly. Mia has a concussion and her whole body is pinned," she shouted up to Elliot.

"Hold on, everything's really unstable, we have to be careful," he called down, and then she heard muffled shouting above her, but he head was spinning again.

"Mia, are you alright? Mia? Mia!" Mia had passed out. Olivia reached out, just barely touching Mia's hand. She tried to wake Mia up but it was no use. Hot tears flowed down her cheeks, making tracks in the dust that had settled on her skin. She could hear men and machines working above her, sifting through the debris to get to them, but everything sounded distant and she couldn't make her vision focus on anything anymore. She felt cold and exhausted.

"Olivia? Can you hear me?" Elliot's voice sounded as like it was reaching Olivia's ear through water. Olivia tried to say something in response but all that came out was a muffled sob before she passed out.

The paramedic shoved Elliot out of the way and crawled through the narrow passage they had created. He felt Olivia's pulse. "Pulse is weak, she's not breathing," he called back. His partner handed him the intubation kit and he worked quickly to slide the tube down Olivia's windpipe to get her oxygen.

"Can you get to Mia?" Elliot asked.

"No, we need to get rid of more rubble. We need to get your partner out of here in the next few minutes or she's gonna bleed out."

"Can't you give her blood until then?"

"We don't have blood on our rig," he said, frustrated.

"Anyone here have O negative blood type?"

"We're the same blood type," Elliot said.

"Perfect." The paramedic hooked an IV into Elliot's arm, then handed it to his partner. He reached in to squeeze the bag that kept Olivia breathing while the other medic put the IV into Olivia's arm so Elliot's blood would run into Olivia. "That'll buy her some time but we still need to get them both outta there now."

The fire department worked as quickly as possible. They managed to free Mia, whose only injuries were a few scrapes and bad bruises and a concussion. She was still breathing, but shallowly and her heartbeat was rapid. She was rushed to the hospital while the fire department continued to work at freeing Olivia. "Dammit, lost her pulse. How much longer before you get her leg outta there?"

The medic started giving Olivia CPR while Elliot watched in terror. "Almost there, give it a minute."

"Fuck, she doesn't have a minute, get her leg out now!" Elliot counted the seconds, 64 exactly, until they freed her leg. It was a bloody mess inside her jeans But the paramedics didn't both splinting it, there was no time. They rushed Olivia into the ambulance, Elliot running alongside them, the IV between them coming unhooked. The doors were barely closed when the ambulance sped off towards the hospital. Elliot looked at the floor when the paramedic ripped Olivia' shirt open to shock her heart. He felt tears sting the back of his eyes when he heard the second shock. He closed his eyes and prayed.


	17. Chapter 17

Chapter 17

The entire unit sat or stood in the hospital waiting room, including Casey, and Matt waited with them. They all knew Matt was Olivia's 'mystery man' but none of them cared enough to ask him anything about it. Only Elliot and Cragen knew about Mia, and they weren't about to tell anyone. Olivia had been taken to surgery and Mia was in the ICU. Matt had stayed with Mia for a while, but had returned to the waiting room to wait for Olivia to come out of surgery.

A young doctor entered the waiting room and looked around at the large group. "I'm looking for the family of Olivia Benson." Everyone stood up and stared at the doctor.

"Is she gonna be okay?" Elliot and Matt said at the same time.

The doctor sighed. "Her brain's been deprived of blood and oxygen for extended periods of time. Right now she's in a coma and she has about a 50/50 chance of waking up. And if she does wake up she could face countless neurological problems, from memory loss to total paralysis. There's just no way to know right now. Even if everything goes well, there was extensive damage to her leg, there's a slim chance she'll ever walk again."

Matt collapsed into the chair behind him and buried his face in has hands, his body shaking, tears streaming down his cheeks. Elliot just stood staring, his eyes burning. When his spoke, though, his voice was steady. "Can we see her?"

"I'm afraid it's family only," the doctor said.

"I'm her brother," Elliot said, taking a step towards the doctor.

"Her brother?" The doctor clearly doubted Elliot's words.

"Yeah. We both are," Elliot said, indicating Matt, he was looking up at him with a tear streaked face now. "And this is our sister," he said, wrapping an arm around Casey, who also had tears streaming down her cheeks.

The doctor smiled a little. He knew Elliot was lying, but he shrugged. "No more than two at a time."

The three of them followed the doctor to Olivia's room. Matt let Elliot and Casey go in first. Casey only went in for a minute, then left Elliot alone. She hated hospitals and hated seeing Olivia hooked up to so many machines and IVs. So Elliot and Matt sat down on either side of Olivia's bed.

"You care a lot about her," Matt said, not taking his eyes off Olivia.

Elliot looked up at him and nodded slowly. "Yeah, I do. She's my partner."

"Just your partner?"

Elliot sighed. He could sense where this was going. "She's my best friend."

"And that's it?"

"I don't know what you expect me to say. I love her, but not the same way you do. I used to think I did, but that was a long time ago. I don't really know how to describe our relationship now, other than strong friendship. That's all, Matt; I swear."

Matt nodded, accepting Elliot's explanation. "Why didn't she want any of you to know about us?"

"I guess she wanted to keep her private life to herself. It's not unusual."

"She didn't tell you about Mia, either."

"Well, she told me." Matt rolled his eyes. "I don't know why she didn't tell everyone."

"She didn't tell you because she didn't really want any of this."

"That's not true. Liv's wanted to be a mom for so long, I'm sure she's thrilled about this."

"Yeah, right."

"Look, I think you're reading too much into this. Olivia really doesn't have any life outside work; at least, she didn't until you came along. Maybe she just wanted to enjoy being a mom for a while before the guy's got a chance to give their opinions."

Matt sighed and put his face in his hands again. "I can't lose her, Elliot."

"Neither can I."


	18. Chapter 18

Chapter 18

When I opened my eyes it was dark, which was probably for the best considering my head was pounding. There was a faint light coming through the blinds, probably from a streetlamp. There was nothing really strange about any of that because it was just like what I always saw when I woke up in the morning. What was really disturbing were the strange noises I could hear, like beeping and a strange, raspy breathing noise perfectly in sync with my own breathing, and I realized it was the respirator I was hooked up to. There was a tube down my throat and I fought hard not to start gagging. I didn't even like having an oxygen mask over my face, forget having a tube stuffed down my throat. Telling myself not to panic I tried to get a better look at myself. My head hurt, but nothing major. There was a dull ache in my leg, and I assumed one of the IVs in my arm was probably pain medication. But above all of these things it was the catheter that made me realize I had probably been out of it for a while, and it also made me pray that a doctor realize I was awake before any visitors did.

Looking around the room was a little harder because I was afraid to bend my neck too much, but I could see a man curled up in a chair in the corner, his coat wrapped around him, his face hidden in the shadows. Next to me was another man, similarly curled in his own chair, his face hidden by a thick curtain of jet black hair.

More than anything I wanted to yank the tube out of my throat, but that would be impossible. The clock said it was 2 o'clock in the morning, which meant it would be a while before anyone noticed I was awake. I debated going back to sleep, but I was wide awake and probably wouldn't be able to anyway. Just when I decided to close my eyes and relax, the door opened and a nurse came in. My face was in the shadows, but she obviously saw my eyes glitter in the dark because she grinned from ear to ear.

"You're awake!" She whispered, probably not wanting to wake my visitors. I pointed to the tube in my throat and the nurse nodded. "I'll go get the doctor. Hang in there."

I was incredibly grateful when the doctor offered to take out the catheter. I would rather crawl to the bathroom than have a tube do it for me and he probably sensed that. I couldn't be sure how long I'd been in the hospital, but it was probably long enough for rank breath and greasy hair, and that was enough dignity down the drain for a lifetime, in my opinion. When the doctor pulled the tube out of my throat I almost wished he had just left it alone, it was such an unpleasant feeling. I started to gag and cough, which woke up both of my visitors. "Oh my god, Olivia!" The man tried to put his hand on my cheek but the doctor told him to sit down for a minute.

"I want you to follow my finger with your eyes," he said. I did what he told me. He did a few basic neurological tests, all of which seemed fine. As he did he told me my leg was severely injured, and I'd lost a lot of blood, but the fact that I was awake was a good sign. "Now, Olivia, do you know where you are?"

Nurse, doctor, tube in my throat, another tube shoved where no tube should ever be, that was an easy question. "I'm in the hospital."

"Do you know why you're here?"

Well duh, you just told me. "My leg is severely injured and I lost a lot of blood," I said, a faint smile playing on my lips. I knew the questions were important, but I could help finding it amusing that he had already given me the answers.

"Can you tell me what year it is?"

Well of course I can. It's…uhh…2000 rings a bell, but no, it's more than that. Shit, I should know this!

"Can you tell me your name?"

Oh good, another freebie. "Olivia."

"Can you tell me your full name?"

Of course, it's my name, right? "Olivia…" Are you kidding me? No, this can't be happening. I know my own name!

"She doesn't remember who she is?" The man who had been curled in the corner was now standing next to the long-haired man.

"Do you know who we are?" The long-haired guy asked.

I paused, looking closely at them both. "Should I?"

They both seemed to deflate, as if I'd just knocked the wind out of them both with one blow. "She has amnesia," the doctor said.

"She is right here," I said irritably. How could I possibly forget my own name? And clearly whoever these men were they were important to me for some reason. So why couldn't I remember them?

"Your neurological tests seem fine, that's a very good sign. The best way to bring back your memory is to surround yourself with familiar things. You family and friends, your own home, your usual routines, things you do every day. You'll have to stay here for another day so we can keep an eye on you, but after that you can go home. We'll talk more in the morning." I nodded and he left the room.

"You really don't remember either of us?" One of the men said. I shook my head.

"I'm Matt, and this is Elliot," the long-haired guy said.

"I'm your partner. We're both detectives," Elliot explained.

"Maybe we should save all of this for the morning," Matt suggested.

"I wish I could go home and shower," I said. And brush my teeth, I added silently. "Maybe you two should get some sleep, now that you know I'm okay."

"I'll stay," Matt said, to my disappointment. That had been my polite way of asking them to leave.

"No, Liv's right. We both need sleep and she probably doesn't need us here making things awkward for her." I silently thanked Elliot.

The two men reluctantly left the room. A pulled back the covers to reveal my leg, which was splinted and wrapped in bandages. Probably for the best, I thought. If it was as badly damaged as the doctor said I probably didn't want to see what was underneath the bandages. I looked around the room and there was a wheelchair next to my bed. I put my good leg on the floor, making sure the brake was on, and eased myself into the chair. It was slow and difficult work, wheeling myself to the bathroom while pulling my IV stand along beside me. When I got to the door of the tiny room a stood up and hopped to the sink. Luckily I only needed to hop once, because it was difficult and painful. I turned on the water, adjusting the temperature, and stuck my hair under the tap. I felt as if I hadn't showered in weeks, which I probably hadn't, and I could feel the grease as I ran my fingers through my wet hair. I scrubbed my head with my IV-free hand and was grateful that I didn't wear my hair very long. Staring at my reflection, I wondered if my hair had grown much over my time in the hospital. My memory was obviously gone completely and it was infuriating. I kept repeating over and over in my head 'Olivia…Olivia…Olivia…' but no matter how hard I tried I couldn't come up with a name the accompanied it. For some reason Olivia didn't even seem quite right.

There was no towel in the bathroom, so I used paper towel to dry it enough so it wouldn't be dripping. Then a rinsed my mouth out, wishing I at least had mouthwash, and then made my way back to my bed. For a while I just lay there, wishing I had something more to do than stare at the ceiling, until sleep finally came.


	19. Chapter 19

Chapter 19

It was about 7 the next morning when the sound of an ambulance woke me up. Memories of the night came back to me quickly, but unfortunately nothing more joined them. My entire identity was still a mystery even to me and I still had no idea who those two men were, apart from what Elliot had told me about being a detective. Was I really a detective? That didn't sound familiar.

"Hey, can I come in?" Elliot poked his head into the room. I nodded and he sat down in the wheelchair.

"I still don't remember anything," I said.

"I didn't really expect anything to change in 5 hours, but I'm sure it'll all come back to you eventually. I figured in the meantime I could answer whatever questions you have."

"I have about a million," I said with a sigh.

"Start with one and we'll go from there," he said, smiling. He was clearly in a better mood than last night. Maybe it was relief that I wasn't dead?

"What happened to me?"

"It's a long story, but basically you were in a building that was blown up and you got trapped in the rubble."

"How long have I been here?"

"Almost two months."

"Ouch," I said. "No wonder I feel so dirty."

"Would it make you feel any better if I told you the nurses…took good care of you?"

"No, it really wouldn't."

"Alright, so I won't."

"Who was that other guy?"

"Matt. He's your…boyfriend." I noted the hesitation and he obviously saw the confusion on my face because he smiled and explained, "You adopted a little girl together. It feels a little weird calling him your boyfriend when he's really more like your husband."

"His hair is longer than mine," I said, not really sure if that was a good thing or a bad thing.

"Are you disappointed that his hair is so long or yours is so short?" I shrugged. "It's actually longer than I've ever seen it, except that one time when you came back from Oregon."

"What was I doing there?"

"Undercover job."

We were both silent for a while, then I looked at him. "I can't do my job with my leg like this, can I?"

"You could go on desk duty, I guess. You'll probably hate that, though."

"It's not gonna heal anytime soon, is it?" I knew the answer already, but my heart still fell when he shook his head. "What's my name?"

"Olivia Benson."

"What, no middle name?"

"I have no idea what your middle name is, actually."

"So are we close?"

"We're best friends. I trust you with my life almost every day, and you trust me with yours. We've worked together for a decade. Most SVU detectives only last 2 years."

"Why?"

He shrugged. "Most people can't deal with the cases."

"But we can?"

"Enough to stay in the unit for ten years. It's still tough, though."

I sighed and buried my face in my hands. "This sucks. You might as well be talking about some random stranger from the street, because none of this sounds even remotely familiar. My own name doesn't sound familiar. How the hell am I supposed to go home to a guy I don't even know, and just pretend everything's fine? And what about that little girl? It's gonna be weird for her."

"They, uh…probably won't be home much, actually," Elliot said hesitantly.

"Why not?"

Elliot sighed. "Maybe I shouldn't be the one to tell you this, but I guess it doesn't really matter who says it. Mia – your daughter – was diagnosed with leukemia. She spends a lot of time at the hospital."

"Oh my god. Is she gonna be okay?"

"She has a good chance of survival, but the chemo really takes a toll on her. It's been really tough for Matt; she was diagnosed the day after you got hurt."

I buried my face in my hands again with a groan.

SVUSVUSVUSVUSVUSVUSVU

Just as I suspected; I did NOT want to see what was under those bandages. My curiosity got the better of me, unfortunately, and I just had to open my eyes. My whole leg was one big red, purple and blue bruise, with a thick line of stitches running down one side and on my knee. It hurt to even touch, and changing the bandages was excruciating, but luckily they didn't need to be changed that often because they were only there to hold the splint in place and help keep it clean. A cast would seal the wound and not let any air in, which would not be good, so I should try to expose it to air when I changed the bandages; great.

And I was right about going home, too. My memories remained elusive and seeing Matt and Mia felt extremely awkward. The little girl had only just started to lose her hair a little at a time, Matt said, but she had decided to shave her head rather than watch it get thinner and thinner, so she always wore various hats or scarves. My heart ached for the girl, but that was all I felt when I looked at her. It didn't feel like she was my daughter, and in some strange way it made me almost miss her.

"So you don't remember me at all?" She asked me when Matt left us alone with each other.

"Uh, no. I have amnesia, I can't remember anything."

"Matt's really sad; I can tell." She seemed strangely mature for her age. "The best way to bring back memory is to surround yourself with familiarity. I'm sure you'll start remembering things soon." Was this normal behaviour? Could I have forgotten what children her age were supposed to act like?

"I see you've met our resident Einstein. She has a genius IQ, and with nothing to do but read in the hospital she's getting smarter everyday," Matt said with a smile. Well, at least my basic knowledge was still intact. As if that was any comfort.


	20. Chapter 20

Chapter 20

The last three months had been hard on Matt, with so many things to worry about. Mia was sick and weak all the time from chemo, so she needed constant care. Travis helped out so Matt wouldn't have to take vacation because he couldn't afford that. With Olivia's salary now gone he couldn't afford to miss a single day. His parents were very wealthy, though Matt had never mentioned this to Olivia, so they had offered to pay all the medical bills and Matt had graciously accepted. But he still worried constantly about Mia, and about Olivia, and about whether or not the adoption would still go through given all the chaos around them. He had always imagined his worries being lifted when Olivia woke up; he wouldn't have to worry about her anymore, she could care for Mia when he had to work, and the adoption would surely go through when it became clear how dedicated they both were to Mia and to each other. But this was devastating. Olivia would need her own care until she could walk again, which the doctor said might never happen, and taking care of Mia might prove too much for her. Not only that, but there was the possibility of her memory never returning.

This, most of all, is what hurt Matt. He couldn't bear the thought of her not knowing who he was. This was almost as bad as losing her completely. Suddenly he just wanted to hold her and kiss her and never let her go, but she could barely stand to be in the same room with him because it was so awkward. It was like a cruel joke; she was so close and yet he couldn't even touch her. It made him want to burst into tears. It made him want to shake her and scream at her until she remembered. It made him wish that James was still alive so he could rip out the bastard's throat.

"You sure you're gonna be okay here by yourself?" Matt asked as he quickly got ready for work.

"I still have one good leg," Olivia said, smiling as she watched him hop around the room, trying to get his pants on while he looked for his keys.

"Travis is gonna be coming over later to check on you two. If he brings Natasha just tell him he's an ass."

"Why?" I had no idea who Travis was, except that he was a friend of Matt's, and apparently mine, too. I had never heard him mention Natasha before, but she could be my best friend or my worst enemy for all I knew.

"He's been trying to get you to meet her for a long time; you're always too busy. If he brings her over now he's just being a jerk because you've got enough people to 'meet' without him bringing her around. Just tell him he's an ass, he'll think you're good as new." He smiled, though I didn't really understand why. That sounded really rude to me, especially if this guy was a close friend.

Matt leaned in to kiss her, then straightened up again, thinking better of it. They stared awkwardly at each other for a minute, then he kissed her on the cheek. "See you later."

Olivia felt horribly guilty. Obviously this man really loved her, and she must have loved him very much, too, but she couldn't remember any of it. She didn't feel anything when she looked at him, but she could see the pain in his eyes when he looked at her and it just added to her guilt. He was probably thrilled when he realized she was going to live and now he had lost her all over again. It made her heart ache for him, but not nearly as much as she knew his ached for her.

"Travis is your best friend," Mia said when Matt had left.

"I thought Elliot was my best friend?" This was getting complicated.

Mia shrugged. "He is, too, I guess. You've worked with El for over a decade. You can have more than one best friend."

"How long have I known Travis?"

"Since you were really little, but you lost touch after high school for a while because you broke off your engagement and he became an alcoholic."

"I was engaged?!" Olivia sighed and closed her eyes.

Mia giggled. "You know, it's kinda cool knowing all these things that you don't."

"Well I'm thrilled you're enjoying this," Olivia said sarcastically. She quickly looked at Mia. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean…"

Mia waved a hand dismissively. "Don't worry about, I know you're frustrated. I would be too if I couldn't remember who I was, and I only have seven years to forget."

"I wish I could remember Matt," she said quietly.

"You will eventually. He loves you, Olivia, he's not gonna give up on you just because of this."

"Maybe I should let him kiss me," she muttered.

"Don't. There's no point if it doesn't mean anything to you. Besides, I doubt your tongue is really the part of your body he's most interested in." Mia smiled. Olivia's eyes widened. Wasn't this girl only seven? "You heard Matt, I'm a genius."

"You're seven!"

"I read medical textbooks."

"Does Matt know you've read about that?"

"Yeah, he filled in all the emotional stuff the textbook left out. He wasn't really mad. Actually he didn't tell me to stop reading them until I was diagnosed. Not that it really matters, I've already read all about leukemia. I tried to tell him I'd rather know what I'm up against, but he won't listen."

"Aren't you scared?"

"I guess, but hiding from the truth is childish." To illustrate her point she covered her eyes with both hands. "I can't see you, so you can't see me." She took her hands away and rolled her eyes. "Matt just doesn't want me to know because he wishes he didn't know."

"Mia…I'm so sorry about everything. You finally had a family and now you have a dad who's a mess and a mom that can't even remember ever caring about you."

"It's not your fault, Olivia, you didn't ask to forget who you are."

"I just want to stop hurting Matt so much."

Mia sighed. "He loves you, Olivia. More than anyone else in the world. That's all you really need to know. You can memorize stupid facts about him all you want, but that's not gonna change anything. Give it time, let him remind you how much you love each other, and eventually you'll either remember everything about him, or you'll fall in love with him again. Either way, he'll wait for you."

"You _are_ seven, right?" They both smiled.

SVUSVUSVUSVUSVUSVUSVU

Three weeks. It had taken three weeks for her to finally sleep in the same bed as me again. We kept our backs to each other and stayed on our own sides as if there was an invisible wall between us, but at least she was there, the heat from her body comforting me, her breathing deep and steady as she slept. I wanted more than anything just to touch her, to feel the warmth of her body against mine, to feel her breath on my chest. I'd give anything for her to just look at me, smile at me like she used to, with love rather than sadness and confusion. I tried to tell myself that at least she was alive, at least she was there, but it was almost taunting to have her so close. I had discovered a long time ago, when we first started dating that she was an extremely light sleeper, which only made everything worse. Just touching her gently would wake her up, so I had to settle for watching her sleep.

She and Mia were becoming closer. Mia of course still cared deeply about Olivia and, though she didn't remember Mia, it's a lot easier to fall in love with a child than a grown man. It helped that Mia wasn't depressed about losing Olivia; she was perfectly content to joke around, play cards, talk as if nothing had changed. I tried hard to follow her example, but it wasn't easy to act as if nothing had changed. I couldn't kiss Olivia, couldn't even kiss her on the cheek without her feeling awkward, I couldn't just tell her I loved her like I used to because now there was nothing but sadness and loss behind my words.

Now, 3 and a half months after seeing her awake in the hospital, I spent my nights staring at her as she slept, watching the gentle rise and fall of her chest, feeling a physical ache in my chest unlike anything I'd ever felt. Eventually sleep would wash over me, filled with dreams of her, of the way she used to look at me, of the way her skin felt under my fingertips, how her lips felt against mine…

I awoke, thinking I must still be dreaming, until I opened my eyes and saw her, startlingly real. It wasn't just a dream; her lips brushed gently against mine and then she opened her mouth to me and I could taste her, so delicious I almost sobbed. My hands rose tentatively to the toned flesh of her arms and slowly slid them down to her hips. Terrified to break the connection, I pulled my lips away and rested my forehead against hers. "What are you doing?"

"I know it's been a while but I thought you'd remember this." She smiled seductively.

I felt a sob rise in my chest and I wrapped my arms around her, wanting to feel her against me, the way she fit perfectly into my arms. "God, is it really you? Am I really awake?"

"Yeah, it's really me. Your best friend since seventh grade, your very first girlfriend. And you're my best friend, the man whose accent used to drive me wild, the only person in the world who ever called my Libby; my lover." She kissed me, swallowing the sob that rose inside me, and I gave myself up to her, letting her release the ache that had been building in my every muscle for so long.

**I have a little epilogue written to let you know what happened to Liv and everyone else, but I haven't decided yet whether I should post it. I kinda like the idea of letting it end here. Post your reviews and let me know what you think. Keep an eye out for my next story, Grey Area, coming VERY soon!**


	21. Chapter 21

Chapter 21

**This was originally a short epilogue, but I was really unhappy with it, so I extended it quite a bit. It's now more of a chapter than an epilogue, but it still serves the same purpose. Sorry for the spelling errors, I didn't use word, so there are probably even more errors than usual, lol. Anyway, enjoy and take a look at my new story, Grey Area, which will be up VERY soon.**

Her memory didn't all come back at once; it was still several months before she was sure it had fully returned, but the strangest things would cause huge chunks of her past to return to her. The night her memories of Matt had returned was the first of these strange occurances. She had been awake, listening to Matt's steady and distantly familiar breathing, wondering what he was dreaming about. 'Me, probably,' she thought guiltily. 'And he always remembers his dreams, which just makes it worse.' But how had she known that? She was going to ignore it, but she started thinking about it more and realized it was true, and she knew it. He had told her once that he never forgot his dreams, and he dreamed almost every night. And that was all it took. Almost her whole history with him, as if some huge section of her now blank page had just been coloured in, came flooding back to her and filled her with the first familiar feeling she had had in a very long time: her urge to be with him.

The day she got the first glimpses of her memory back, Matt called Travis early in the morning and asked him to take care of Mia at his house for the day. Travis, after being a pain in the ass for a while ("The whole day, why is that? She remembers you? Well what on earth could you two want to do all day that Mia can't stay at the house with you? Well, whatever it is, I hope you two have lots of…fun), agreed. The next day Mia didn't have chemo but she was feeling tired, so they built a fort and covered all of the windows in the living room. Then the moved the TV into the fort and watched scary movies all day. Between 'When a Stranger Calls' and 'Secret Window', Mia started humming 'Killer Queen' while they waited for Matt to return with the popcorn, and memories of the entire accident came crashing back to Olivia. It had been a spectacular and heart-wrenching experience at the same time. She remembered the fear and the events that had caused the accident, but she also remembered finding Mia in the alley and spending that time with her. And, of course, she remembered the lyrics to 'Killer Queen' and 'Bohemian Rhapsody', which they all had a good laugh about.

After spending the next day in the hospital with Mia, cheering her up while she had her chemo, Olivia went to the squadroom. She used her crutches rather than her wheelchair so she could be at eye level with everyone. They were thrilled to see her, even thought she still couldn't remember anything about them. Elliot 'introduced' everyone, and she did her best to play the part. They told her all about SVU, a lot of which she didn't really want to hear, but she told them she wanted to hear it from somebody before it snuck up on her. It was a difficult day for her, but she felt better having at least some forewarning, especially when bits and pieces of old cases started returning.

"I can't believe I actually deal with this stuff every day," Olivia said to Casey, as they sat together at her desk, sipping tea.

"It's not easy, but you have your reasons."

"What are they?"

Casey shrugged. "I guess part of it is your mom, but there's probably more to it that I don't really know about."

"What happened to my mom?"

Munch, who was sitting nearby, looked over at Casey, who was now looking at him, not sure who should tell her. "Well," Munch said slowly, "your mom was raped."

"You're the product of the rape," Casey added tentatively.

"So my dad..."

"Your mom wasn't all that great, either," Fin said. They all shot him a look, but Olivia quickly defended him.

"No, it's okay, I want to know. Eventually it's going to come back to me and I'd rather hear it from you, first." So they explained as much as they knew and even though she didn't like hearing it, she was glad to know.

The worst part of her memory recovery was when she remembered Christy. It had come back to her in the form of a nightmare. At first she had assumed it was just a nightmare, but the dream quickly sharpened and became clearer until she realized it was not a nightmare, but a memory. So at 2 'clock in the morning Matt was awakened by Olivia's sobs and retching noises in the bathroom. It had taken several days for her to recover from the shock of the horrible images, and Matt cursed himself repeatedly for not telling her about it before this could happen. Once she was feeling better, he decided to tell her the whole story about Travis and Curtis before she could be hurt by that, too. It again took some time for her to get over these things, which she was practically experiencing all over again, but with the help of Matt, Mia, and the rest of her friends, she managed to move on. Elliot came by to talk to her about some of her more upsetting cases, in the hopes of avoiding another severe reaaction. Olivia was grateful for that, because she was sure she didn't want any of these cases to pop into her head at random. During the course of their day, thought she had no idea what exactly it was, something triggered her memories of Elliot, certain aspects of her partnership, along with certain memories of their co-workers. It was a great day for both of them.

The next year was a difficult one for Olivia. Mia was in and out of the hospital all the time, either for chemo or various tests or complications, but Allison assured her that the adoption would go through without a problem. In addition to Mia's health problems, Olivia had to deal with her own recovery. She had to go to physical therapy on a regular basis, which was extremely painful and frustrating. Matt, Travis and Elliot were there to support her, though, along with the rest of the SVU squad, so the difficulties were bearable. At work Olivia had transferred to computer crimes where she still had the occasional opportunity to work with SVU. It wasn't as exciting as chasing down perps, but it was much better than a boring desk job. She had been forced to talk to Huang several times before she returned to work, and on a regular basis for several months afterwards to ensure that she was handling the transition well. It was annoying and sometimes upsetting, but she didn't complain.

Olivia eventually got back on her feet with the help of a brace on her leg, to take the pressure off her knee. She never fully healed, but she could at least walk and she was grateful for that. It was harder to stay in shape without being able to do her usual workouts, like running or rock climbing, but she still managed to keep up a good workout routine without using her bad leg. Her life was a struggle, but she had everything she needed. A family, good friends, and the ability to finally let her hair grow out without worrying about it getting in the way. Life would never return to 'normal', but when had her life ever really been normal? She was happier now than she had ever been, and that was plenty enough.


End file.
